Your favorite Kirov-Mariinsky ballerina?

[Marc Haegeman]

Anyone willing to vote for his or her favorite Kirov ballerina of today is welcome to do so on my site, at the well-known address B) http://users.skynet.be/ballet-lovers/

Please remember only 1 (one) vote is allowed .

Thanks for voting!

[Alexandra]

Nice poll, Marc - lots of choices, and there are 27 votes already as of this hour. Thanks for giving us the link (and please feel free to post updates to this site whenever you have something you think will interest us.)

[Marc Haegeman]

Thank you, Alexandra, the poll has been up since yesterday evening. Depending of the interest, I will keep it open for one month.

Admirers of the young star Leonid Sarafanov will rush to his new gallery at:

http://users.skynet.be/ballet-lovers/Leonid_th.html

[Hans]

That was one of the easiest decisions I've ever made--Ayupova!

[Mashinka]

I'm surprised that Irina Zhelonkina's name isn't included.

[Marc Haegeman]

There were only 10 possible choices and I tried to select those dancers whom most people have seen in principal roles. There will always be somebody who's left out for somebody, Mashinka. Sorry, that's part of the game.

[colwill]

Marc what a great poll. Having seen all the ballerinas :rolleyes: I was spoilt for choice only ruling one as a definite no-no. I won't say what my choice was but she is second favourite at the moment .

[Marc Haegeman]

Thanks, Colwill. Well, I have no idea who your favorite is but I bet she will end up in pole position, or somewhere near that. It's good to see that a lot of Russian balletomanes have voted as well today (thanks to Mikhail who put up an announcement at the Russian forum http://forum.balet.ru/) .

[Marc Haegeman]

Now that the “Your favourite Kirov-Mariinsky ballerina” poll has been up for more than ten days (http://users.skynet.be/ballet-lovers/), it’s good to have a look at the present results (260 people have been voting since August 31 – Many thanks to all who participated! )

Absolute winner is Diana Vishneva whom almost 22% of the voters consider their favourite Mariinsky ballerina. Second (and perhaps more surprisingly) comes Yulia Makhalina with 16.15%, followed closely by Svetlana Zakharova (15%) and Zhanna Ayupova (14.23%). Uliana Lopatkina who was in the first days the poll was up top favourite, now only ends 5th with almost 12%.

There is quite a big gap between these 5 ladies and the remaining 5. Natalia Sologub, Maya Dumchenko and Daria Pavlenko each gather 5 to 6 % of the votes, while not many balletomanes seem to fancy Sofia Gumerova and Irma Nioradze (under 2%).

I’ll keep the poll open until the 15th of this month.

[Alexandra]

Thanks for the update, Marc. I'm not surprised about Vishneva, but I am surprised, too, about Makhalina -- I didn't think she danced enough these days to have fans!

[Marc Haegeman]

Well, Alexandra, I guess this is partly related to her age as much as her former "prima ballerina" status. People who don't follow the Kirov regularly today, but who saw the company in the early nineties are bound to have memories of Makhalina (the same goes a bit for Ayupova, who scores quite well too), as much as Lezhnina and others of that period. I often heard remarks about Makhalina in the sense of "I had no idea she is out of favour; she was so wonderful when the Kirov came in 1992" or something along those lines.

[Mikhail]

Hi, Marc, that was a good idea. Just a remark concerning the interpretation. The descrepancy of the result can be estimated as 100%/sqrt(260), that is about 6%. This means that Miss Vishneva is a leader indeed, but other ladies (Makhalina, Ayupova, Zakharova, Lopatkina) share 2-5 places.

[Marc Haegeman]

Hi, Mikhail, thank you for the mathematician's interpretation!

[Marc Haegeman]

The poll has been closed today. 322 people participated. The final results have Diana Vishneva shattering all competition with almost 22 % of the votes. (Still online at http://users.skynet.be/ballet-lovers/)

Second comes Yulia Makhalina with 15.8 %, followed by Svetlana Zakharova (14.6%) and Zhanna Ayupova (13.98%). Uliana Lopatkina obtains 12.7 %.

Daria Pavlenko, Maya Dumchenko, Natalia Sologub circle around 5 % each, while Sofia Gumerova and Irma Nioradze stay below 3.5 %.

Thank you once again for all people who voted . As announced elsewhere you can now vote for your favorite Bolshoi ballerina.

[Alexandra]

By American election rules, it's likely she wouldn't get elected with 22% of the vote, but by Parliamentary rules -- that sounds like a very interesting government! Thanks for posting the results, Marc.